Streams

Also known simply as a connection, a stream is an open session between a news client and a Usenet server. All Usenet traffic, from updating headers to downloading newsgroup articles, takes place on a stream. Many news clients and servers support multiple concurrent streams to facilitate faster download speeds. Concurrent streams allow a news client to download newsgroup articles at the same time as updating headers, or to download large, multi-article binary posts much faster due to their combined speed. Giganews allows up to 10 concurrent streams for all newsgroup accounts and 20 streams for users with SSL services or the Diamond account. This generous number of streams allows most users to completely saturate their internet connections with Giganews traffic."